
THE BOOK OF JAMES.
Thompson, D. D., are to. the point : "Faith and works
are like the two poles of the galvanic battery: they
must be brought together in order that the current of
life may flow and give out sparks of love. Either is
powerless without the other. They are the two foci
of an ellipse, in which the Christian life moves on in
its heavenly course—now nearing one, and now the
other-
T
-but held by both in constant equilibrium. To
remove either would be to make that life erratic, or
cause it suddenly to collapse and come to a stand.
James represents one pole, one focus ; Paul, the other.
Their teachings are not opposed, and should not be
divorced. James puts faith into concrete forms. He
holds, as strongly as does Paul, to the necessity of
faith ; everything must be sought in faith; everything
must be done in faith. But it must be a living faith
—a faith that shows its sincerity by the sacrifices of
self which it makes, by the works of love which it
performs. A merely intellectual orthodoxy may be
held by demons. A mere profession of faith may be
worth no more than the body of a man without the
breath of life. A true faith loves, works, lives. It
regulates the conscience, the speech, and the life, by
the conviction of God's constant presence; it shows
its appreciation of spiritual realities by separation
from the world ; it takes the law of God as a reality,
and, bringing its grand truths and inspiring motives
to bear directly upon the conduct of every day, works
by
love."—Bible in the Home, p. 115,
2. "It is impossible to separate works from faith,
yea, as impossible as it is
.
to separate burning and
shining from
fire."—Luther.
"James by no means affirms that works give life
to, produce, or create, faith ; for faith comes by the
power of the word, entering into and received by us,
and by nothing else. But faith grows complete in
works. That is the same as Paul's saying, or, rather,